Monday, March 23, 2009

More Caricatures of Ayn Rand

For those admirers of Ayn Rand who wonder if and why they should speak up, I submit this "symposium" of "experts" over at the NRO. Unless the conversation about Ayn Rand and her ideas becomes much deeper and more accurate, there is no hope of effecting the fundamental changes necessary to right our society. Everyone can and must play a role in it if time isn't to run out.(HT OActivists)

2 Comments:

In one form or another, I have been trying to defend Objectivism, as I understood it, for more than 45 years. I have seen a wide variety of attacks. They are not effective in the long-run, as long as someone knowledgeable speaks up by stating the case for Objectivism and, where appropriate, very briefly refuting the attackers' positions.

The worst response, as I have seen frequently, is to react with insults instead of ideas. A calm, deliberate approach is very persuasive for the one active-minded person out of 10 or 100 in the audience.

Along this line, Peter Schwarz has gradually become a model for me: living his life fully, preparing thoroughly, presenting his case in a straight-forward manner, and moving on to the next challenge.

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Ideas cannot be fought except bymeans of better ideas. The battleconsists not of opposing, but ofexposing; not of denouncing but of disproving; not of evading,but of boldly proclaiming a full,consistent and radical alternative.
-- Ayn Rand